


Ask Me No Questions (And I'll Tell You No Lies)

by laraceleste



Series: Lightspeed [2]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Team Bonding, Team Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:20:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28907724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laraceleste/pseuds/laraceleste
Summary: Arley Gluck and the rest of the team are asked, in order to raise money, to answer some questions, and honestly when you put nine teenage superheroes in front of a camera and ask them to read questions people tweeted at them, you can't— Batman shouldn't have —expected them to act like their mentors had during the Leagues Q&A. They are still teenagers after all.
Relationships: Artemis Crock/Zatanna Zatara, Kon-El | Conner Kent/M'gann M'orzz, Wally West/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Lightspeed [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1957627
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	Ask Me No Questions (And I'll Tell You No Lies)

Four months ago Lois Lane had been approached by the head chairpersons of Strive Forward, a Metropolis based charity for severely disabiled children; the dark haired reporter had been asked to get into contact with the League to see if they would do a public Q&A to raise money for the charity, and well, it hadn't been a mystery on why Lois Lane had been approached, everyone knew that the reporter was close to Superman, the face of, and one of the founding members of the Justice League.

However, what was a mystery, was how she had gotten all of the founding League members, Batman included, to agree to the fundraiser. But just like the details on how Wonder Woman had in fact shocked the Dark Knight several years earlier, whatever Lois Lane had promised Batman was kept a secret; what wasn't kept a secret though, was the date the team of sidekicks would be answering questions, just as their mentors had.

Apparently the first Q&A had raised so much money for the Strive Forward chaitry, that Bruce Wayne— before he had managed to get Jim Gordan to talk to Batman on his behalf —had thought that having the team of sidekicks doing the same thing would rake in more money for the Thomas and Martha Wayne's foundation for troubled youngsters.

Which is how the team of young heroes all ended up in the Mount Justice cave in front of a camera; the nine heroes— Green Lantern, Kid Flash, Zatanna, Robin, Artemis, Miss Martian, Superboy, Aqualad and Rocket —all sat on the chairs that had been brought in and stuck before the camera.

Wally Wests arm hung off the back of Arley Gluck's chair as her hand was settled on his knee; her head rested against his shoulder as they waited for Red Tornado to finish situating the camera in front of them. Behind the camera and Red Tornado was a large screen that would read off the questions the team was supposed to answer.

Artemis sat on Arley's other side while Zatanna fit herself between the archer and Boy Wonder. Conner— Superman's and Lex Luther's clone —sat on the taller, more elevated chairs behind the five heroes, next to Miss Martian and Aqualad.

Behind Wally, next to Miss Martian, Raquel— Rocket — popped the passion fruit flavored gum she had been chewing.

"Are we ready children?" Red Tornado wondered,

"Aye, aye captain," Wally mused and Arley, bowing her head snorted; Dick— Robin —let out a chuckle whilst Artemis, who despite her own fond smile, groaned.

"Do you always have to be corny?" Artemis asked and Wally, with a twisted face and scorched up nose, stuck his tongue out in the archers' direction, over Arley's head.

"Don't be a buzzkill."

With a faux glare— Artemis and Wally West bickered if only for something to do; despite this though the two were close friends —the blonde archer stuck her own tongue out in Wally's direction.

"Guys," Dick laughed, "The video."

"Right, right," Artemis replied as she rolled her eyes; while the team was eager to see what questions their teammates would have to answer it was safe to say that none of the teenagers were excited to see what they would have to answer themselves. "Ready-I'm ready."

"Good," Red Tornadoes robotic voice sounded off, "Now in three, two—" the android cuts himself off as he throws up a thumb, signaling that the camera was rolling and for a moment— a split second —the team stalls before Dick, who sits at the end of the first row, rocks forward beaming.

"Hey guys, welcome to the Thomas and Martha Wayne charity fundraiser, myself and the rest of the team will be answering questions that you paid to have us answer."

"Paid to have us answer," Wally repeats with a chuckle, "Sounds a little weird. Like they're paying a charity, not us."

Despite the fact the camera was rolling, his arm was still slung around Arley's shoulders and her hand was still on his knee.

It wasn't as if Wally and Arley— Kid Flash and Green Lantern —were trying to hide their relationship from the public, they weren't, if someone came out and asked them about whether or not they were together neither teen would lie and say they weren't, but— officially —as far as the public was officially concerned, Kid Flash and Green Lantern were still just friends, even if Arley Gluck and Wally West have been far more than that for close to ten months.

"Semantics-schemantics," Dick waved off and Arley scoffed in his directions.

"You so do not get to that that when you're always going off about whelmed and turbed every five minutes!"

"Lantern's right," Zatanna hummed, the lip of her top hat fell back as she turned to look at Dark Knight's partner, "You do butcher the English language a lot."

Dick let a squawk of laughter and he turned in the direction of the magician only for Aqualad to place a hand on his shoulder; the gilled teenager raised a blonde brow at the masked fourteen year old before he looked at the rest of the grinning team, "Perhaps we should focus on the task at hand?"

"Sorry," Arley grinned, she then turned to the camera, "Sorry," she said to the public. "Who's reading the first question?"

"I will!" M'gann perked up; "It's for the team and it's from **_proustmalone_** , what is your favorite movie growing up?" M'gann blinked, "I think mine would be when Harry Met Sally, my uncle J'onn used to come back to Mars with all these movies and shows from Earth and, I don't know, I really liked that when I was younger."

"Awe that's actually really cute Miss M," Artemis said, "Mine would probably be the Indiana Jones and the last Crusade, my mom and I watched it with my sister when I was kid." Arley knocked her knee against the archers comfortingly. "What about you Z?"

"I liked Barbie movies, but probably Barbie and the Swan Princess-no!" Zatanna corrected herself, "Barbie and the Princess and Pauper, that whole song where Annalise and Erika sing how they're just alike is a masterpiece."

"I don't know, growing up that swan princess movie-not the Barbie one but the cartoon one, with Odette, you know the one I'm talking about?" Arley asked; Wally, who had been forced to see the movie half a dozen times throughout their friendship nodded, as did Raquel , Artemis, Zatanna and Dick. "That one was my favorite growing up."

One of her foster sisters had been singing the song, _'This is My Idea'_ and when Arley had asked Yevone what movie the song had come from the fifteen year old had used some of the money she'd been saving up to rent it from the Blockbuster down the street. After that Arley had just fallen in love with the movie.

There'd also been Hercules; Arley had made Wally watch that movie just as much as she had him watch Swan Princess, but unlike with the nineteen-ninety-four movie, a then ten year old Arley had never gotten Wally to sing any of the songs from Hercules.

"I'd have to say my favorite movie growing up was the second Mulan movie, it was one of those direct to video movies but that, and the second Aladdin one-the one with his dad, were my two favorites. I think I drove my ma' up the wall watching them every day," Raquel answered earnestly.

"I loved Dumbo," Dick said; and both Wally and Arley couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it. "Shut up," Dick muttered as the rest of the team sent the giggling couple odd looks.

"What about you Kid Mouth?" Dick wondered impishly, "What was your favorite movie growing up?"

"The Princess Bride," Wally answered automatically. Conner titled his head to the side; Arley had shown him the movie after he had first been unpodded and rescued from Cadmus.

"Suddenly a lot more things make sense," Conner mused, Wally half turned in his seat and sent the half-Kryptonian a look that was quickly ignored, "I-well, I liked Lilo and Stitch." That had been another movie Arley had made the clone watch; there were several others Arley had said both he and M'gann had needed to watch if they were going to partake in human society.

"We didn't have movies in Atlantis but I ever since I've been on the surface world I can say I am fond of the movie second Spiderman movie, it was the first movie I ever saw on the surface world." Arley turned and looked at the Atlantean,

"When did you see the second Spiderman?"

"Red Arrow took me to the theater to see it." With a nod Arley turned back to face the camera.

"Okay, next question-wait how is this going to work?" Wally wondered as he turned away from the camera and to his teammates, "Are we going to answer a bunch of questions as a team and then individually or is it going to be mixed?"

The other young heroes shrugged; "Cool," Wally said, "Next question-Rob you're up! **_glamdamnit_** wants to know who is your favorite villain to fight."

"Riddler," Dick answered after a minute, "I don't like the guy, he's a villain and all, but some of his riddles are pretty fun to figure out before they, you know, kill you and ten thousand other people."

"That doesn't sound fun," Artemis mused, Dick shot her a dry look; "Right, next question-oh it's for me," Artemis said as she looked up at the next question that had popped up on the screen behind Red Tornado. " ** _Graywall_** wants to know who taught me archery and if I know how to fight with any other weapons."

"You've kicked my butt in sword fighting before," Arley said, dancing over the first part of Artemis's questions.

"And you can certainly handle yourself in hand-to-hand combat," Kaldur piped up,

"I can also use sai," Artemis said, "My sister taught me how to handle them; I'm not an expert or anything but I can hold my own if they're all I've got on hand. Moving on, next question, for the team: If you could be mentored by another League member who would it be?"

Artemis made a choking sound; "Right so _**innittommy**_ really wants to start some—"

"—Captain Marvel!" Arley shouted, cutting Artemis' musings off. The team looked at Arley whose hand had shot up, off of Wally's knee and had been thrown into the air. Bashfully, the Lantern put her hand back down onto the speedster leg.

"You didn't even hesitate!" Dick laughed, with a blush Arley smiled, ever since it had come out that Captain Marvel was in fact a ten year old boy and not a dorky adult hero Arley had all but adopted the young boy. In Arley's eyes Billy Batson was just as much family— was just as much her sibling —as Conner and Artemis, and Dick.

"Sorry, I just-Captain Marvel is a sweetheart, and I don't know, yeah I'd love for Black Canary to mentor me, I mean that woman can fight but you can't tell me you wouldn't have fun if you were fighting alongside Cap, it'd be a kriffing blast."

"I guess," Dick responded, "I wouldn't mind the Question mentoring me-I know he's technically not a League member and all but still, he's a hell of a detective."

"I wouldn't mind Black Canary," Artemis said, "It'd be cool, she might even let me drive the motorcycle."

"No she wouldn't," Arley and Dick said simultaneously. Dinah wouldn't even let Roy drive the Canary-cycle. Artemis rolled her eyes; and Conner tilted his head to the side.

"I wouldn't mind Green Lantern-Guy, to be my mentor."

"Me too," Wally said, "I mean, not Guy-no offense, but the original Lantern would be almost as cool a mentor as the Flash."

"Dude you've known GL since you were nine, by now, you don't have to score any actual brownie points with the in-laws right, you know that right," Dick teased and Wally, allowing his hand move up off of Arley's shoulders, used the back of Artemis' head as shield so that he could flip the cape wearing boy off, out of view from the camera.

Dick threw his hands up in the air, as if he hadn't just teased the speedster and Zatanna bit her lip, deep in thought; "Maybe Wonder Woman, I could probably learn a lot of magic from her."

"Wonder Woman would be a wonderful mentor, the Amazons and Atlanteans, before both separated from the surface world, used to be close allies. I would learn much from her," Kaldur said.

"I think Superman would be cool," Raquel said, "What about You Miss Martian?"

"Maybe Icon?" M'gann said, "I mean, the other Leaguers are cool and they're all really nice but I think only another alien would really be able to mentor me, you know?" Raquel let out a hum of agreement as she nodded.

"Next question, again for the team," Arley said as the next question came up; her brows shot up at the question. "Who was your first kiss and if you can't tell us, at what age did you experience it?"

"That's a-wow," Raquel said; she didn't answer the question.

"Superboy was mine," M'gann said.

"And Miss Martian was mine," Conner followed.

"I was eleven," Arley said, "It was with an alien-Soranik, her fathers pretty evil and tried to kill everyone at one point but she's pretty cool."

"I'm sorry what?" Artemis turned fully in her seat, she brought her leg up underneath her and Arley turned to the archer.

To the people watching it appeared that Kid Flash was the only teenage hero not surprised at the fact Arley had once made out with an evil alien's— Sinestros —daughter; because he wasn't, Arley had told Wally all about Soranik after he had found out about her being a Green Lantern. At that time it'd been before she had developed feelings for him.

"What?"

"You kissed an evil alien's daughter?" Arley shrugged; while her, Artemis and M'gann— before either Zatanna or Raquel —had ever joined the team had talked about kissing they had never technically talked about first kisses, just that they had all experienced them by that point in time.

"Sora's cool, her dad's pretty evil but like it wasn't like I kissed him," Arley defended; she couldn't imagine anyone ever trying to kiss Sinestro, especially with the comically evil mustache he sported.

"Right, next question I guess," Artemis said; it was obvious that there would be more talk about Arley's gay Romeo and Juliet styled first kiss after the camera was turned off. Artemis moved so that both her knees were bent and her feet were tucked underneath her as she faced the camera once more. "Kid, _**lowkeymos**_ wants to know how fast you can run."

"At the speed of sound, which okay, isn't nearly as fast as the Flash but still, it's pretty fast."

"We know Handsome, we know," Arley said with a sarcastic and teasing coo, as her thumb rubbed circles onto Wally's knee. With a dry look as he pouted down at her Wally's nose brushed along the side of Arley's head,

"Thanks babe." Arley winked at Wally as he went to turn face forward.

"Aqualad, **_saltandbears_** wants to know if you can talk to fish."

"It's complicated," Kaldur said, Raquel 's head snapped towards him,

"You can! I thought you eat them!"

"I do-just like humans, Atlanteans are omnivores—"

"—But you can talk to your food, dude! That'd be like if I talked to my burger about the weather!" Wally interrupted.

"I can't talk to them," Aqualad stressed; "The only person I know to do that is my King, however, both myself and other Atlanteans can persuade intelligent aquatic life like sharks and whales and such. We cannot, however, talk to them or fish."

"Less creepy, okay," Wally breathed.

"Green Lantern has the next question," Kaldur said, "This _**thoughtfultude** _wants to know, does it ever bother you when people call Robin the first sidekick, because you were definitely around before him?"

"No it doesn't," Arley said, "I mean probably because unlike Rob, I was never a sidekick. See this symbol on my chest—" Arley points at the large Green Lantern symbol, "—Means I completed boot camp and am an actual member of the Green Lantern Corps, if the first Lantern never got his ring I'd still be out here fighting in the streets because I'd have still gotten the ring."

The question changed; "This is for the team, _**kingbae**_ wants to know what our favorite bedtime stories were as children."

"I was never read bedtime stories as a child," Kaldur said, both Conner and M'gann let out sounds of agreement.

"I was," Artemis said, "I was young when they stopped but my mom, she used to tell me this old Vietnamese myth her mother used to tell her, about the Dragon and the Fairy, so basically this legend all about the origin of the Vietnamese people. So I don't remember much because I was like four when she stopped reading it to me—" the team didn't so much as twitch despite the fact they all knew exactly why Paula Crock had stopped reading her daughter bedtime stories, "—But the Dragon King of the Sea's grandson marries the Holy Bird in the mountains sister? Daughter? Whatever, he's a dragon's grandson and she's a fairy, so they get together and after they're married this fairy gives birth to a hundred eggs and they all happen to be sons."

"That's a lot of kids," Zatanna said, Artemis nodded.

"It was, but they all live in the mountains happily, only after some time the dragon kings grandson misses his home in the sea so he and fifty of his kids decide to live in the ocean, this means fifty of the other sons decided to stay with the fairy wife, the eldest son who had stayed with the fairy was the famous King of Van Lang and becomes the first king of Vietnam, the first Hung King."

"That doesn't sound like a cool bedtime story," Wally said.

"My mom always told it better-that was just a summary. What kind of bedtime stories were you read?"

"Peter Rabbit, Curious George stuff like that."

"Monkey's are the worst," Conner voiced.

"My parents used to tell me stories about giants and stuff like that," Dick said, "The Jidovi were always my favorite."

"Jidovi?" M'gann repeated,

"They're just really nice and patient giants," Dick shrugged.

"My ma' used to tell me about her and my pops met," Raquel said, "What about you Zatanna, I mean you musta' been told really cool bedtime stories."

Zatanna shrugged, "I don't know, my dad mostly read me fairy tales like Rapunzel and Red Riding Hood. Sometimes he'd tell me stories about adventures he'd gone on, my favorite was when he'd retell how he saved a Fairy Queens life from a shadow demon."

"A shadow demon?" Artemis wondered, "Like an actual demon from hell?" Raquel seemed to pale at the question and Dick slowly blinked at Zatanna, as if he were waiting for her to start laughing; aliens and magicians were one thing, demons and the mortal souls were another.

"What no of course not, shadow demons are manifestations of evil, they're born right here on this plane of existence," Zatanna explained.

"Right," Artemis said, "Silly me."

"Next question, this one is actually for Zatanna-it's from _**facef0wards**_ -only the 'o' is a zero, anyway they want to know if Harry Potter was right and there's actually a place where people can study magic."

"There isn't," Zatanna answered with a sympathetic shrug, "There is however, for the people who know how to get to it, magical shops and bars that exist on another place of existence just overlapping this one, for example if I walk into the door of a Macy's changing room I could actually be going into a bar full of magical creatures."

"You mean like pocket dimension?" Wally asked.

"No I don't," Zatanna glared;

"Maybe we should move on?" Arley asked rhetorically, loudly before either Wally or Zatanna could start to argue. The last time they had gotten into it over whether magic was indeed real or not Zatanna had spelled Wally's skin blue and the speedster had nearly given himself third degree burns when he had tried to concoct something in the caves Labs to change his skin back.

"What's the next question-oh thank Nortz, Superboy are you Superman's son?"

"No," Superboy responded, "I'm his clone." There was no added expansion about Cadmus or anything else— like Lex Luthor for example —and with a nod in the half-Krptonians direction Arley looked back at the screen, the next question was also for Superboy.

" ** _Theoryboo_** wants to know why you named Wolf, wolf-apparently the people want to know if it's just a codename or if you really named your pet Wolf," Artemis read. Conner's brows furrowed together quizzically.

"Of course I named him that, he's a wolf, why wouldn't I name him Wolf?"

"Probably because it's lame and unimaginative," Wally said and Arley's elbow shot up into the speedsters side. "Ow! Babe!" He cried out woundedly, not because it hurt but because it had been Arley who had elbowed him.

"Think before you speak Handsome." Wally had a heart of gold, it was what Arley had fallen in love with over the years— it was why she loved him —but that didn't mean Wally West never stuck his foot in his mouth, the young speedster was an expert in leaping before he looked long before he'd ever even gotten his powers.

"Look all I'm saying is that Supey over here could have called Wolf something cool like Laser Beam or Missile Launcher, but instead he calls Wolf, Wolf, because he's just a giant, genetically enhanced wolf. I mean you named your alien dog after a the Scottish Boogeyman."

"And?" Arley raised a brow, not seeing himself winning the conversation, Wally's shoulders dropped. Wally turned to Conner.

"And I'm sorry I called you lame and unimaginative."

"You called my naming skills lame and unimaginative not—" Conner cut himself off as Wally blinked at him, and with a sigh Conner's shoulders rested against the top of the chair she was in, "—It's cool. How many more of these do we have?"

"Only a few more," Dick answered; "The next question is for Rocket, _**noorooz**_ wants to know, that since your power is all about creating these inpentiarable bubbles—"

"—That is not what my power is," Raquel interrupted, "Saying that I just create force fields is like saying all Lantern over here can do is imagine things, I'm able to create kinetic energy bubbles."

"Right," Dick nodded, "Sorry-so **_noorooz_** wants to know that since you can create kinetic energy bubbles, what's the stupidest thing you've used your powers for?"

Raquel's brows knitted together, "Stupid as in self serving or stupid as in what you and Kid Flash had me do last week?"

"Pretty sure the ladder, not the former," Wally said with a grin.

"What did you three do?" Kaldur asked seriously; ever since he had been elected team leader the Atlantean truly had become the mother hen of the group.

Arley, who'd watched Raquel's, Wally and Dick's take on a Superhero version of Funniest Home Videos grinned as Raquel ran a hand through her hair. At the time Arley nearly had a heart attack but now, a week later and with no one— Wally —seriously hurt, Arley found it easier to laugh.

"So last week-well no, okay Kid Flash can vibrate himself through objects like doors and walls and my shields are made of kinetic energy meaning the more you hit them the stronger they are so last week I put Robin in a bubble and we tried to see if Kid Flash could, running, at his top speed and vibrate through the shield-he almost broke his face."

"I don't know who was crying more, Lantern or Kid," Dick laughed.

"I wasn't crying," Wally defended himself, "I blacked out-I wasn't crying."

"I'm sure you weren't," Artemis smirked, Kid shot Artemis a nasty look with no real malic behind it and Artemis, with no anger behind her own look, let her top lip jut up into a snarl.

"I was," Arley said, she looked at the camera, "One minute all I see is Rob in the bubble and the next I see Kid with blood on his face and passed out-I thought he died."

"Awe babe," Wally cooed, "You care." Arley rolled her eyes fondly at the speedster,

"Of course I do, I love you." With a lovesick grin Wally pecked the corner of Arley's mouth only for Rocket to dig out the wrapper of her passion fruit gum and throw it at them.

"Keep the PDA down you two, there's kids watching this."

"I swear they're like nerdy rabbits," Artemis said as she tipped her head back; M'gann grinned at the archer and with darkened cheeks, Arley's elbow knocked into Artemis' ribs.

"We are not," Arley muttered. Calling them nerdy rabbits implied that she and Wally were sleeping together, and they weren't; though from the things Artemis and the others had walked in on over the past ten months she supposed it was a moot point to argue.

"Yeah-yeah, whatever Mrs. Cottontail," Artemis teased. The question changed, "Hey Miss M, this next one's for you, **_shialablunt_** wants to know, since it's come out that Martians can read minds, what is the most embarrassing thing you've ever heard in someone's mind?"

"Well, so mind reading doesn't really work the way most humans think it does-or at least, Martian mind reading doesn't. We can turn it on and off, but the most embarrassing thing I've had to find out via a mind-link was, it's not so much what I found out while mind-linked but what happened, should I tell the story behind this?" M'gann asked the other teen heroes.

"Sure why not, context clues, right?" Arley shrugged.

"Okay, so what everyone should know is when minds are linked up is that they're not just individual minds anymore, there really is a hive mind going on. What one mind experiences so do all the others, and so a while back us girls went to the mall—" Raquel clapped and Arley let out a loud bark of a laugh; Zatanna, also knowing where this story was going, clasped her hands over her mouth and Artemis, who's eyes had gone wide under her mask spun in her seat.

"—No!" Artemis squeaked, "No come, on I'll pay you not to bring this up."

"I don't think you can match this person's donation to the Charity, besides come on, it's not even that bad."

"I dunno Miss M, with the way Artemis is acting it sounds bad maybe you should let her name her price first," Wally taunted. Artemis' head snapped in Wally's direction and one of her hands which had been curled around the back of her chair snapped over Arley's head,

"One word out of you Baywatch and I'll personally marry Lantern off to that Sora chick-she is a chick right?" Arley shrugged, as Wally let out an offended sound at the prospect of Arley being married off.

"Korugarian's have a different perception on genders than us, they're not male-female but yeah Sora, if she were on Earth, would be classified a female. Also do I not get a say in being married off?"

"Nope,"

"Cool."

"Can I tell the story now?" M'gann wondered; crossing her arms over her chest, Artemis slunk into her seat,

"I guess."

"Thank you, now where was I-right so me and the rest of the girls were at the mall and well we were all linked up and Artemis had to sneeze only Artemis, who hadn't slept the night before thinks it's Zatanna who has to sneeze so she doesn't go to sneeze into her arm and ends up slamming her head into the table of the food court as she sneezed."

"I'm sorry you did what!" Wally laughed.

"I swear to god Kid I will smother you to death," Artemis ground out; Zatanna laid a hand on Artemis' shoulder,

"Come on, that's not nearly as embarrassing as the time Lantern got stuck in Robin's snare." Arley let out a loud groan as Dick cackled at the memory; the snare had, technically, been meant for Green Arrow— Roy and Oliver, Green Arrow, were visiting the cave after ten months of nothing but dead ends on the original Speedy's whereabouts, and Dick had planned on cheering the clone up with a prank —only for Arley, who had met both Oliver and Roy at the caves entrance, to step into the room before them.

"I don't know," Wally said in Arley's defense, "Artemis' is pretty funny."

"Sleep with your eyes open Baywatch, 'cause I'm coming for you," Artemis declared with pursed lips and Wally, constantly poking the bear, jokingly— and over exaggeratingly —winked at the archer. Artemis felt the corner of her lips tip upwards.

"The next question is for Robin," Zatanna read, "Out of the other four original sidekicks who is your favorite to hang out with?"

Almost automatically, Arley, Wally and Kaldur heads all swvilved in Dick's direction.

"I'm sorry does this person want the team to break up?" Raquel laughed. Conner leaned over in his chair as Dick's mouth fell open at the question and the clone clapped the boy wonder on the shoulder, "Red Arrow will probably watch this when it's uploaded."

"I don't see what Arrow has to do with this seeing as I am his best friend," Wally said.

"Best friend," Arley scoffed, moving away Wally, "I've known him longer!"

"Yes but Robin and I do talk battle tactics when we are not training," Kaldur added.

"Sounds like a tough choice," Zatanna taunted, "I wonder who Boy Wonder over here will pick?"

"Can I pass?"

"No!" The team chorused; Zatanna looking like the cat who'd caught the canary smirked at Dick.

"Come on, just tell us."

"I-look I'm sorry," Dick said, "But Kid I'm picking you."

"Hell yeah!" Wally pumped; Arley, with a wounded and scandalized face pouted in Rob's direction.

"Are you kidding me, I've known you since you were nine!" Dick threw his hands out in front of him, "I almost got murdered by Black Mask because of you!"

"Sorry!" Arley turned in her heat and Wally, with a victorious smirk, preened down in her direction, Arley's hazel eyes flickered up to meet his bright and cheerful emerald green ones.

"Shut up." Wally pecked the curve of Arley's cheek.

"Love you too babe. Rob, what's the next question?"

"It's for the female members of the team, if they had to-and they have to -pick a Disney princess to be, who would we choose?"

"Maleficent," Zatanna said with no hesitation.

"Uh, the question said Disney Princess Z, not an evil villain," Arley said.

"Maleficent was queen of the fairies or whatever, she's my favorite!"

"Just pick a princess," Arley shot back,

"Fine-man I hate them all, why can't Disney give the princesses magic?"

"They gave Rapunzel magic," M'gann said,

"Yeah but like real magic like Ursula, Jafar or Maleficent," Zatanna said, "But since Lantern is being such a killjoy-I guess I'd go with Jasmine. What about you GL?"

"Ariel, mostly because of the dog, but I also wouldn't mind being Mulan, that girl knows how to handle a sword."

"I like Tangled-I wouldn't mind being Rapunzel," Artemis said, "I mean did you guys see how she handled that frypan, and the way she stood up to Gothel?"

"Tiana," Rocket said, "It's kinda self explanatory but if I had to go another way I guess I agree with GL and pick Mulan, what about Miss M?"

"Sleeping Beauty?" The girls on the team turn to their Martian team memeber, "I just think it's beautiful that true love's kiss saved the day."

"You are such a sap," Artemis ribbed and the Martian girls green cheeks turned a bright and rosy pink. M'ganns eyes flickered to the next question that had been presented,

"Lantern this one's for you, someone that goes by **_civicsandpepper_** wants to know, How old you were when you first got your powers. We all know you were nine when you made your debut but how old were you when you started fighting?"

Four, Arley had been fighting ever since she'd been thrown head first into the Gotham foster system, but Arley knew she couldn't say that.

"Eight," Arley said, "I was in boot camp for a year-eight months longer than any other Lantern because of my age and then I was put on sector duty with my partner, well now, partners but at the time it'd just been me and the first Green Lantern."

"Okay, this one is for Zatanna, it's from _**toadschools**_ , have you ever actually pulled a rabbit out of a hat? Just for fun?" Raquel read, her brows knitted together as she looked at the smaller teen, "Have you?"

Whipping her top hat off, Zatanna held up upside down; she stuck her hand into the hat with a mischievous smile playing on her lips and a bright glint in her baby blue eyes, "Ekam a ynnub raeppa." And as she pulled her hand out of the hat a small white bunny was clutched tightly in her hand.

"I have now," Zatanna said,

"You had that in there!" Wally cried, "Your hat's a pocket dimension!"

"Not everything is a pocket dimension, it's magic!" Zatanna fried back. Zatanna placed the small white bunny in her hat, though it didn't disappear, it's front paws sat on the rim of the hat as it looked out at the camera.

"Magic's not real!" With her smile flattening and an unimpressed look, Zatanna pointed her finger in Wally's direction. Arley's eyes widened and Wally's narrowed petulantly, and Artemis, lacing her fingers through Zatanna's, snatched the magical teens hand out of the air before she practically sat on them.

"Thank you," Arley practically sang in Artemis' direction, they really didn't need Wally almost burning his skin off a second time.

"We have some more questions," Kaldur said, it was clear to the team— to Arley —what the Atlantean really meant; _Behave_. "This question, from _**gcdric**_ , wants to know if we all have individual workout playlists or just one big one and if so, who makes the best playlists?"

The team seemed to turn to each other for a moment; trying to decide who would answer the question, there wasn't a mind-link established but after having been inside each other's minds for over a year the nine teens didn't need one to communicate.

They all knew each other well enough— cared about each other enough —to know what a quirked up brow or a nose twitch would mean.

"Well I mean, it's a little of both," Arley explained as she turned back to the camera a moment later, "So we all individually have our own playlists but we're training together we have just one."

"I made it," Dick said proudly.

"He hacked our phones and put a playlist together based on what we listened to," Wally said to the camera.

Dick, shrugged, "Get better phones? Anyway, next question!" The question on the screen behind Red Tornado changed, "Oh it's for Rocket, since you're from Dakota City and the League goes everywhere, where's your favorite place to have been able to travel?"

Raquel thought for a moment, her arms crossed over her chest and she loudly popped her gum; "I really liked Egypt-Cairo was nice but so was Pureto Plata, so I guess it's a toss up between those two."

The team nodded at her answer, "The next one is for you babe, _**boomer1125**_ wants to know what's your favorite planet to be on, besides Earth?"

"Oa," Arley answered with no hesitation, "It's the planet the Corps is located on; which okay, sounds like a copout but to me there's no other planet more beautiful than Oa-there's planets from all around the universe so that Lanterns feel at home and the architecture is just amazing and the night sky, you can everything when the sun goes down."

She wasn't exaggerating, Oa was at the heart of Guardian Space meaning that from Oa, a Lantern could see every single sun in the three-thousand-and-six-hundred sectors twinkling in the night sky. Though, even if Oa wasn't beautiful— and even if it looked like an alien version of Gotham city —Arley would still say it was her favorite planet in the universe; it'd been the first place she could ever call home after all.

"What's the next question?" Arley wondered.

"The next, and final question is for the team, it's from _**RiddleQuinn**_ , why are you guys heroes when you could be normal kids?" Dick read; "Uh, wow, heavy question." But not unexpected, their mentors had been asked the same thing.

"I guess I'll go first, I'm a hero because I want to help people to the best of my ability and right now that ability is in the suit," Dick answered.

"I'm a hero because I have these powers, I was born with them-there was no crazy science experiment gone wrong or anything, they just appeared one day and well, when you have powers like me and something bad, that you could have stopped, happens that's on you isn't it?" Raquel asked rhetorically, "I'm a hero cause it's the right thing to do."

"That's why I put on the suit," Wally said, M'gann let out a sound of agreement, "When I found out who the Flash was all I knew is that I wanted to help people; Lantern and Rob and Red Arrow were all already out on the streets and if they could help people, then why couldn't I?"

Arley laced their fingers together.

"I didn't come to Earth to be a hero, I just wanted to get off Mars but when my uncle J'onn asked me if I wanted to help people with my abilities I couldn't say no, not when I have to save people," M'gann said.

Conner spoke up next; "I was made to be a hero, to protect the Earth, I don't know what I'd be doing if I wasn't on the team."

"I do it for my dad," Zatanna said, her back a little straighter and her shoulders more squared. "He gave his life for me, for the planet, how can I not help project what he left behind?"

"I do this because I need to," Artemis said, "Yeah I love saving people, but I can fight and do good—" Be good, she didn't say, but Arley, and the rest of the team heard, "—So how can I just stand on the sidelines and ask other people to risk their lives for me when I can be out there helping them?"

"What about you Aqualad, Lantern?" M'gann wondered. Arley turned her head and both she and Kaldur shared a look; they were heroes because it was their job, because they had been raised soldiers. They weren't morally righteous like their friends, they didn't do this to better the universe, they did it because they were tasked with it.

Kaldur tipped his head up when he broke eye contact with Arley, his chest puffed out as Arley turned away from her friend and to the camera.

"I think I do this job-I think I am a hero, because I was trained to be, like Superboy said, I don't know where I would be if I wasn't here saving lives," Kaldur answered.

"Same," Arley said; "I was chosen to wield the ring as a kid, I was asked to protect the universe and now being a normal, regular teenager-being a normal civilian doesn't seem like an option, you know?" It wasn't an option, after everything she had done in the name of Justice— all the lives she had taken —there was no way Arley could ever put down the ring and live her life like a normal person.

Wally brought his and Arley's interlaced hands up to his lips and pressed a kiss against the side of her thumb.

"Since that's it, thank you," Kaldur said, signaling that this was the end of the team's Question and Answer video, "Your donations are much appreciated—"

"—But just because we won't be answering any more questions doesn't mean you guys should continue to donate to your local charities," Dick cut in.

"And if you can't donate, volunteer," Arley added, "Help your neighbors and friends, be good-the best version of yourself you can be."

"Just because you're not out there fighting people like Captain Boomerang or the Joker doesn't mean you still can't be someone's hero. Anyone can be kind," M'gann beamed. With that the team waved at the camera and a moment later, Red Tornado held a thumb up, signaling that the video was over.

"Oh thank fucking god, that sucked," Artemis said. Arley couldn't help but laugh at her friend;

"It could have been worse," Arley said, "They could have asked you who do you like better, Arrow or Canary."

"Or who would win, Bats or Supes," Wally said.

"But why would they fight?" Conner asked;

"It doesn't matter Batman would win," Dick said,

"Bullshit!" Conner replied, and Dick, turning in his chair so that he was kneeling on the metal stoll faced the clone.

"I'm sorry did you forget the Watchtower? It was Batman's Kryptonite that helped bring down Superman!"

"Wonder Woman could defeat both Batman and Superman," Zatanna said,

"Where is the batt—"

"—Aquaman is not winning this Kal!" Conner said, "Superman is stronger, he's faster—"

"—Batman is smart!"

Arley, as Wally watched on their bickering friends turned to the speedster with a large smile on her face; she'd been nothing but an abused runaway living on the streets, surely to die sooner than later and now she was a hero, surrounded by friends— by family —who loved her just as much as she loved them.

"What's with that look Glowstick?" Wally murmured as he looked away from their friends; the speedster dipped his head forward and his hot breath brushed against the shell of Arley's ear as M'gann— poorly —tried to play mediator.

In her option, her uncle would be able to take out Superman and Batman in no sweat.

"Nothing," Arley hummed, "I just-I love you, all of you."

Softly, Wally pressed his lips against Arley's. "Love you too babe."


End file.
